


Victory

by nothingeverlost



Series: Elaborate Lives [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-04
Updated: 2013-06-04
Packaged: 2017-12-14 00:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/830483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war is over</p>
            </blockquote>





	Victory

They apparate into the nursery, the both of them, one on either side of the crib.

“It’s over,” Mary Margaret, called Snow by those that know her best, whispers as she picks up her daughter. She holds her close, not noticing the drop of blood that falls onto the infant’s night dress.

“You’re both safe.” David’s arms wrap around them both. The final battle was a long and painful one. Friends as well as foes are fallen in the ashes, but the threat is over.

 _She_ is dead.

They will sleep together in a bed, all three of them, for a week before Snow can bear to spend even a night with her child out of sight. Slowly, though, things will return to normal. The wounds will heal. For the first time in their adult lives they will begin to live without the shadow of a war hanging over them.

II

“Aurora?” The child stands at the window, watching the fireworks. The whole wizarding world is celebrating. She’s just waiting for mama and papa to come and pick her up. She loves Philip and his mama and papa, but she wants her family.

“Sweetheart we need to tell you something.” Philip’s mama lets her have pumpkin pasties sometimes, and reads her a story every night. There’s something funny about her voice now, though, and it makes her want to cover her ears. Or run.

“I haffta go pack my things. Mama and papa will be here soon.” They promised as soon as it was safe and all the bad people were gone they would come for her.

“Your parents were very brave and very strong, darling. I know that’s not going to mean much right now but you will always know that you can be proud of them.” The arms that wrap around her are gentle. She squirms away easily and runs as fast as she can. Up the stairs and down the third corridor, she runs into the room with a black dragon painted on the door.

“We haffta go fight the bad guys and get my mama and papa back,” she tells her best friend. If they’re not coming for her she’ll go and find them. Philip is seven, and knows everything. He can help.

Silently he hands her a wooden sword. “Let’s go.”

II

“Tea party, papa?” Grace toddles after him, a cup in one hand and dragging a stuffed bunny by the ears in the other. “Pway?”

“Not right now, poppet. Papa has to pack.” The war is over. He didn’t fight on the wrong side, but he didn’t exactly fight for the right either. Grace’s best interests always came first, and he did what he had to to make sure she was protected.

He’d promised Alice. “We’re going on a trip, my little dormouse.”

“Fwy on broom?” her face lights up; his darling loved to fly. She is her mother’s daughter.

“Not this time.” No magic, not for a while. They needed to, as muggles said, stay off the radar. “We’re going to have an adventure, just Grace and papa.”

“Venture, papa.” She laughed and spun in a circle. “Tea party now?”

II

“Please, my love.” Abigail Phrygia falls to her knees, the energy not already drained from the final battle used up in casting spell after spell. She has tried every charm, every counter curse, and every spell she knows.

Nothing has worked.

Tomorrow she will try again. She will research every potion and antidote. She will not stop until she has an answer.

“Come back to me, my Fredrick.” She curls up around the petrified body of her husband. The curse had been meant for her, but her brave Fredrick had blocked her with his body. He had saved her. She would find a way to say him.

“I love you.” Her lips caress his stone like cheek. She has nothing left, not even a tear to cry.

II

“Put down the wand. We are authorized to bring you in, Rumpelstiltskin, using any means necessary.” Twenty aurors surround him. He might be flattered, if he cared about anything.

“Afraid of one little man, Auror Phrygia? You just won an entire war.” He giggles, a sound that echoes of insanity and decay. The war is ended, and everything that matters is gone. What does it matter what happens to him now?

_They were cruel to her. They tortured her for information and when she was all used up they used Imperio to compel her to throw herself out the window of the tallest tower. She died._

“Put down your wand, Rumpelstiltskin.” Some of the aurors surrounding him had been his students, just as Belle had been. They can barely look at him.

Even the youngest do not look like children anymore. War robs everyone of their innocence.

“Say please.”

II

“Professor Hopper?” The whole right side of his body is numb. He’s not sure if it’s because he’s drained himself of every last bit of magic, or if he was hit by something. He can’t find it in him to care.

The war is over.

So many lives have been lost.

“I tried.” So many fallen, and he couldn’t do anything. What good was being able to turn a deck of cards into a flock of birds when people were dying? He had fought, but offensive spells were not his forte. He should have been better. He should have been able to help more.

“Professor Hopper, can you hear me?” Everything is going grey, but he can see someone leaning over him. A girl. A Griffindor from seventh year, he thinks, or maybe she had left the year before. It is hard to remember anything, except war.

Her name is Red. No, Ruby. “It’s over,” he mutters.

“We won.” she touches the side of his face. He wonders about the dark red that glistens on her fingers when she pulls them away. “I’m going to get you help, professor. Stay here.”

“Nowhere else to go.” He closes his eyes. He’s so tired.

II

“They only think it’s over.” In a dark place, their last stronghold, the remaining few meet. On the table in the middle of the room is a wand. _Her_ wand. 

“Let them have this temporary victory. Let them return to their happy little lives. We will grow strong, and when the time is right we will take away everything they hold dear. The battle is over but the war has only just begun.” They whisper of plans that will take more than a decade to come to fruition, but when they leave the black robes and masks are discarded. They rejoin the world to walk amoung those that celebrate, and no one is the wiser.

II

“It’s over.” In a stone basement a girl clings to the small bit of hope that’s offered to her. The war is ended. Her world is free. Her friends will be able to walk in safety again, and learn to smile again. Children will grow up without the fear of everything being taken away, and no one will die just because their blood is not pure enough.

She hopes that her papa is safe. She hopes, just as much, that Rumpelstiltskin is safe.

She hopes they are both able to find a way to live without her.

The girl named Belle stands in a basement, staring at the small patch of blue sky that is the only piece of the outside world she is allowed, and is thankful. The war is over. If the price of that peace is one more pawn she will face the black queen with as much bravery as she can muster.

Victory.


End file.
